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The Crucified

Biography

We were there.

When the Crucified started out, no one was talking about money.
No one was talking about record deals. No one was talking about fashion or genre or marketability.
No one was talked about being “pioneers.”
There was no pretense.
There was a guitar. There was a bass. There was a set of drums. There was even a microphone.
(And occasionally, a P.A.!)
We practiced three times a week, because… why wouldn’t we?
Getting a show was terrifying. Getting a tour? Silliness.
Radio? Stop it you’re killing us!
With all that practicing, how we ever had time for the High School we met at or the Bible Study where we became friends is difficult to comprehend. And how did we find the time in all of that other stuff to fall in love with the music of everyone from Minor Threat to Metallica?
Funny what one can accomplish when surrounded by miles of... nothing.
All we were attempting to do was to create something we didn’t already have. That’s what we did. Necessity being the mother of invention and so forth, we needed some music we liked – but we hoped God would like it too.
So… we made it ourselves.
We were tired of sifting through entire albums for one song that would make us go crazy, so we wrote only those kinds of songs. We were tired of music we couldn’t play for our friends
(without cringing)
so we made our own. We were tired of t-shirts that looked like they were handed out after Sunday school, so we made our own. We were tired of going to shows where none of the bands were our kinds of bands, so we booked our own.
We were tired of hearing no good reason why
you can’t sing like that/look like that/wear that/listen to that
so we just… did what we liked and waited for someone to give us a good reason why we couldn’t.
They never did.

We talked a lot about Jesus.
We prayed before we did anything, because… why wouldn’t we?
It was simple and sincere – if a bit naïve – and it was fun.
It was fun before anyone bought “bulk rate postage.” It was fun before “zines” grew up to become magazines. It was fun when “merch” meant a t-shirt and a sticker. It was fun when no one cared what you were wearing as long as it wasn’t something you were told you had to wear. (For some of us, a little more attention to what was being worn might not have been a bad idea.) It was fun when there was Artwork to hold, study, dissect and interpret. It was fun when there were liner notes. It was fun before The Internet, before “Soundscan,” before Blogs and before Downloads. It was fun before there were tours or sponsors or cell phones or book deals.
It was fun when jumping off the stage or into the Pit was not only legal but
Expected.
(And almost annoyingly commonplace.)
And it was fun when nobody knew we were doing any of it.

Eventually, some people found out. Then more. Then more and more.
Plans were planned, decisions we decided, but The Will of God is… reality.
Turns out, there’s more to Jesus than just talking about Him. Turns out, God is not mocked.
(Who knew?)
Turns out, being Crucified with Christ isn’t just an anthem,
but a life.
A life that requires respect for whatever He decides that life will be.
Turns out, He knows better than we.

What else could be said that hasn’t already?
1985 - 1993
THE CRUCIFIED